Month: November 2017

Daniel 1:1-2:23, 1 Peter 3:8-4:6, Psalms 119:65-80, Proverbs 28:14

Today is the 25th day of November. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. It’s great to be here with you as we close the books on another week. And one month from today is Christmas day. So, we’re kind of in the thick of it. Things are speeding up and we’ll be covering a lot of territory in the Scriptures over the next month. And the new territory we’ll wander into today is in the form of a new book. We finished the book of Ezekiel yesterday, which brings us to the book of Daniel. And Daniel is a prized book in the Old Testament for its narrative style and the history that it covers and because it’s been mined for millennia in the search for the end times, eschatological studies, because of Daniel’s visions. And Daniel was a contemporary of Ezekiel. So, he was carried away into exile when Jerusalem fell to Babylon in 597 B.C. He was obviously favored by God and was a gifted young man as he became an advisor and an authority in the Babylonian kingdom of Nebuchadnezzar and then beyond him. So, Daniel was respected and gifted. And the first half of the book is a narrative about Daniel’s life and some of the richest stories in the Bible are in these first six chapters. They demonstrate faith in God, God showing up, even in exile. The story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego thrown into the fiery furnace, the story of Daniel in the lion’s den are contained in the first part of the book of Daniel. And then, the second part of the book shifts to visions that Daniel had - prophetic visions of four great world empires. And Daniel was not a prophet, like, that was sent to Israel, like, for or against Israel. The visions that he had, although they’re in the context of Israel, weren’t Jewish, particularly. And if eschatology, the study of the end, is something that you’re interested in or something that you’re a student of, then the book of Daniel is one of the centerpieces of your study. And whether the end times is your passion or not, the book of Daniel is rich in the heritage of God’s faithfulness and is beautiful in the way that its narrative is constructed. And, so, we begin. We’re reading from the New International Version this week, which is today. Daniel chapter 1 verse 1 through 2:23

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word and for the rhythm that it is in our lives. We thank You for this week, that we’ve expressed gratitude and thanksgiving and considered all that we have to be thankful for, which is substantial to say the least. And we thank You for the season that we’re moving into of contemplating the mystery of your arrival. So, we find ourselves entering into a busy season, full of all kinds of activity, and all kinds of emotion. And we just acknowledge, this is where we are, and we also acknowledge the peace and wholeness of Your Holy Spirit in this busy and fragmented season. So, we invite You, Holy Spirit into all of it, asking You to illuminate the path forward for us in all that we do think and say. May we represent You well and Your kingdom in this world, in this season. We ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the website. It’s home base. It’s where you find out what’s going on around here.

And what’s going on here, right now, is the Daily Audio Bible Christmas Box and its availability. We do one of these every year and pack them full of resources that you can kind of open up and pick and choose what you want to keep for yourself, what will help you in your life, and what you want to give away as gifts. And we’ve talked about that a couple of times. What’s in the Box this year? So, there’s some music for the season. First up, music for the season of Advent, the month before Christmas, just that is intended to put us in the place of longing, to put us in the place of longing like the Jewish people were longing for a Savior to come at the time that Jesus came, but to also put ourselves and acknowledge the season of longing that we’re in for Christ’s return, His second advent, His second arrival or coming, which is what Advent means. So, there’s music for the season, just contemplative music to keep your spirit and your mind focused on what’s going on. Then there’s the family Christmas CD, which is full of Christmas carols, beautifully and lushly orchestrated. I love it. And it’s a great contemplative record for the season as well. There’s a couple of copies of Sneezing Jesus in the Box as well as a book called The Road Back to You, written by my friend, Ian Cron. And I talked about that little yesterday. It’s been one the most influential books for me this year. And so influential and helpful that I wanted to bring it to this community. So, that’s in the Box. The Daily Audio Bible Christmas bulb for 2017 is in the Box. And that’s the only place to get the Christmas bulb. We do them every year for the Christmas Box. And, so, the one for 2017 is in there. A Black Wing pencil is in there. Those are paired with our writing journals and all of that. And, so, we thought we’d give everyone their own Black Wing pencil. You will have a choice of our Wind Farm coffee or tea. So, our tea selection for this year is honey bush and rooibos and our coffee is the Daily Audio Bible blend that’s roasted exclusively for us. And a pack of 20 of the Daily Audio Bible Christmas cards along with the envelopes that go with them. Those are all in the Box. It’s a great Box this year.

And speaking of Daily Bible Christmas cards, those are available individually in the Daily Audio Bible shop as well. They come in packs of 20. We make them new and exclusive every year. And there just a great way to invite those that you love that are in your sphere to take the journey with you, although you don’t have to do that. I mean there Christmas cards. The only thing is a Daily Audio Bible about them is just on the back where you’d find Hallmark. But there not like a blinking neon commercial for Daily Audio Bible at all. But they’re a great opportunity for an invitation into the Bible next year with your friends and family. So, those are available and you can’t get them…I mean…they’re $5, $5 for 20 cards…so…you know…you can’t get them cheaper than that. And we do them every year for just what I said, they’re a great opportunity for a personal invitation to experience the Bible together in community, like we’ve been doing all year. So, they’re in the Christmas Box, 20 of them, but you can get as many as you want in the Daily Audio Bible shop, individually as well.

And some cutoff dates. One is important. It is 29^th of November and, I mean, today is the 25^th, so just a few days from now. That is the international shipping cutoff date for the Daily Audio Bible Christmas Boxes. That is the date that we feel like that’s the last time that we can be confident that things will arrive for Christmas to you internationally. You can certainly order after that, but we’re just giving you a heads up. So, just keep that in mind if you live outside of the United States.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, then what new way can I come up with to say how grateful and humbled we are that we get to be here doing this together as a community, bringing God’s spoken word to whoever will listen to it, wherever they might be on this planet, whatever time it might be of day or night, and to continue to foster community around that rhythm. If that is life-giving to you, thank you for being life-giving to what we’re trying to do here every day. And thank you profoundly. There is a link. It’s on the homepage of dailyaudiobible.com. If you prefer the mail, the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And as always, if you have a prayer request or comment 877-942-4253 is the number to dial.

And that’s it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayers and Praise Reports

Good morning DAB family. This is Joyful Noise from southern California. I am calling you with what I consider a huge prayer request and can’t even believe I am asking this of you. So, our daughter turned 21 yesterday, and out of all of our kids I would say that I really question her salvation. She is a darling spirit. I love her, of course, we all love our children, but there has definitely been a separation from her family to her…and she finds ways to separate, like not coming home during the holidays, not spending time with us, finding ways to take on jobs or extra classes even during the summer and even during the holidays. She just doesn’t want to be around us anymore and, although, she is a super achiever and she  works very hard in her college, I would say based on worldly values, she is doing just fine, but I really have to question her salvation. And as I was out in nature yesterday, waking up very early the morning of her 21st birthday, and heading out into God’s creation celebrating, and really crying out to Him for her as I have been for months, God made clear to me that I was to pray fervently for her every day of her 21^st year. And I know we all pray for our kids, but this was like a command for her soul. And I’m so scared I’m going to drop the ball. It feels like so much pressure and I’m just asking for my prayer warriors to partner with me in this. I know it’s so much to ask and you all have your own things but if you could she’ll get a second day. Between today and November 19^th, 2018, pray for her. Her name is Zoey, which means eternal life. And I really have to believe that.

This is Patrick from Georgia. I wrote this down because I knew that I wouldn’t remember everything that In needed to say. I’m calling in today because God wanted me and confess my sins against this community. For years after I started listening to the DAB, I wouldn’t really listen to the prayer request part at the end of each podcast because my heart was so hard. Then God worked on me to the point that I was willing to listen to the prayer requests and even sometimes pray for them. At this point my hard heart struggled with and made fun of those warrior’s prayers that I considered to be too stereotypical and too religious. Also, in my heart, I made fun of people who sang on the calls. It took me a long time before I was able to start stopping myself when I would begin to start having such evil thoughts against those who called. But I still have them and I have been convicted of them significantly over the past few months. God has been dealing with me to call in over the past three of four weeks to confess my sin and ask for forgiveness. My heart is definitely not where I want it to be but I need to apologize to you all because I have been choosing to perceive the love that you give one another in such wrong ways. I’ve benefited from this community and the prayers of this community for so long now, I can’t tell you how grateful I am to you. But it ___ me to stop harming you with my own messed up heart and mind. So, for all of you prayer warriors and all of you angels who lift up your voice in song to the lord, please, please continue to do so. And to everyone in this community, please forgive me, for my hardness of heart and my judgmental spirit. Thank you.

Father God, we lift up the country of Zimbabwe to You. We pray Lord, for Your blessing on that country. May that country flourish. Father God, we lift up the leaders of that country and we just pray for wisdom Lord and we pray for peace Lord in this time of absurdity and transition. Father God, please be at work there. Please be at work in the hearts and minds of all of those involved and the hearts and minds of the people, that there would be peace, and that any change that comes about be done in a calm peaceful manner that serves the people of Zimbabwe. Father God, thank You so much for Your people thus. I pray Lord that You would be blessing them and helping them be a shining beacon of hope in that country. Father God, thank You for the countries around Zimbabwe as well. And I just pray for wisdom for those leaders and leaders around the world as we watch the situation develop. Please be at work Lord. Father God, we lift up to You, Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip and thank you for their 70 years of marriage. Father God, thank You so much for marriage and for those people you’ve given is to care for. Please be blessing our marriages Lord and filling our hearts with love for our spouse. Father God, help us to be more like you. Give us a love for those around us. Help us to love You with our heart, mind, soul, and strength, help us to love others and let Your love shine for us. In Jesus’ name. Amen.  This is Beloved by Him in Gloucester, UK. Hope you have a blessed day wherever you are.

Hello Daily Audio Bible family. This is Kep from the UK. I’m calling with a prayer request for two people recently diagnosed with brain tumors. If you would please pray, that would be amazing. The first one is for one year old Lily who has a brain tumor that is affecting the part of her brain responsible for hunger. So, she is not gaining weight as well as from having ___. She is very poorly ___. Please pray for her and her wonderful family who are part of our church. The second prayer is a colleague of mine named Heather who has been diagnosed with a brain cancer affecting the front of her brain and particularly keeping her inpatient. This is a fast-growing cancer and we are all very worried for her. Please prayer for her temple healing. Thank you. Good bye.

Hi. My name is Gail. I love in Clayton, North Carolina and I just wanted to give some words to encouragement. Recently, I’ve been in prayer about how I can become close to the Lord and I have a very long commute in the morning. And yesterday at church it became clear to me that I should be using that time for my commute to be listening to the word. And this morning I woke up early and downloaded the podcast and listened to the podcast for today. And while I was listening to the podcast one of the verses, the scriptures that came through was, Give thanks to the Lord for He is good, His love endures forever - Psalm 136:1. And that is actually the memory verse that my family is currently using the November month for the Thanksgiving holiday. And it was just a wonderful reminder that when we seek the Lord He will follow through. And it was amazing to me, out of all the verses in the Bible, that that one today was the one that was spoken for the daily podcast. So, I would like to just give everybody encouragement to continue to seek the Lord and be in prayer. And I’m extremely thankful that I was able to reach out and listen to the podcast today and I look forward to continuing to listen to it in the future. Thanks so much for this wonderful blessing.

Hey. This is Bobbly from Louisiana and I’m with my son Lesly. I just wanted to say, it was so great getting to hear Brian speak about Sneezing Jesus in person. Annette, it was so good seeing you again and it was great to meet Tracey B. and Julie and her husband and Ron and his wife from River Valley church. We thought you all had a great church and we’ll be visiting again soon. We really love the DAB and we listen every day. We know all of your voices and we’re looking forward to getting together with the More Gathering. We’re praying for all of you and we stand in agreement for each of you as you call in. You all be blessed. Bye-bye.  

Ezekiel 47:1-48:35, 1 Peter 2:11-3:7, Psalms 119:49-64, Proverbs 28:12-13

Today is the 24^th day of November. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It’s good to be here with you at the close of another week and the beginning of a very busy season. So, it’s Black Friday. So, some of you may have been out and about doing shopping things since midnight. I know a lot of people do that. I’m not one of them, but I know a lot of people do that. But no matter what you are doing, the global campfire is roaring with warmth and light and good news and here we are for the next step forward in the Scriptures. And today we will conclude the book of Ezekiel before we take another step forward in Peter’s first letter, also known as first Peter. So, lets dive in. We’re reading from the New International Version this week. Ezekiel 47 verse 1 through 48 verse 35.

Commentary:

Okay. So, in our reading from first Peter today, we have a very, very popular and well quoted passage. And, so, we need to look at that and get the full context of what’s being said, because as we’ve noted all the way through this year, we come to these very, very famous passages and often pull them out of their context, when their context actually gives the clarity for what’s being said. So, we’ll take a quick peek at that before we get to a bombshell, disruptive moment. So first, the famous passage. ‘He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness. By his wounds’. Right? ‘By his stripes, you have been healed. For you were like sheep going astray but now you have returned to the Shepherd, an overseer of your souls’. Okay. So, this is a summary statement. This is the end statement of a larger point that Peter was making. And we like it, and quote it, because it concisely describes what we put our faith in, and what we’re hoping for - healing, wholeness and eternal life. And the ‘by his stripes, you are healed’. Right? ‘By his wounds you have been healed’, as the New International Version translates it, we often say this to people who are sick. So, what was Peter saying? Like what was the point? So, the context becomes a lot more clear when we understand what was going on. The good news of Jesus was spreading around the known world and over the previous centuries Hebrew people had been spread all over the known world, either through forced exile, right, or fleeing. So, there are people who practice Judaism and who have synagogues and they’re all over the Roman Empire and down into Egypt, they’re all over the place. And this is who this letter is written to, Jews who have been dispersed and are now embedded into any number of cultures all around them - widely diverse and varied cultures. So, as the good news about Jesus spreads throughout the world, it reaches, obviously, these Jewish people who are all over the place, and many come to believe in Jesus as the next step, as the next chapter in their Hebrew story. But as we’ve seen in the New Testament, this provides a lot of friction, a lot of tension. Those practicing the most traditional form of Judaism, obviously, have no use for this Jesus. And, so, they’re against it. And faith in Jesus’s is causing disruption in other cultures as well, as we see in the writings of the apostle Paul. So, overtime these people do get sidelined and marginalized in a lot of places and that just makes them a target. And, so, persecutions do break out. Basically, Christians get blamed for a lot of things that they never had anything to do with. And being called a Christian was not a good thing. It was slanderous. So, for most of us, our culture has, like, turned away from using the ‘N’ word as a derogatory thing toward someone else. Right? Being called a Christian in a lot of these circles that Peter is writing to was like that. So, kind of understanding this is backdrop allows the words in Peter’s letter to bloom and blossom, that we understand what he’s trying to say. So, when he says, ‘dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul’, we begin to understand who is talking to. And he goes on. ‘So, live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong’. Right? ‘So marginalizing you, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits’. So, this whole passage, that leads us to the payoff point that we know very well, is intended to encourage these people who are being sidelined and called names and marginalized and even persecuted, that the only way to combat that is to be better than that. Right? To make sure that you do not fit that profile at all, the profile that the cultures that these people are and are trying to heap upon them. So, in so many ways, Peter is inviting these believers who are being marginalized and called names and persecuted to not become the stereotype because they are called to be something far greater, a new creation. And they need to live into that reality rather than degrading themselves. So, Peter’s saying the way to resist this isn’t to become the stereotype. The way to resist this is to be Christ like. So, Peter goes on, ’submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human authority, whether the Emperor as the supreme authority, or to governors who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right’. He goes on to say, look, you’ve got to work inside the system you’re in, but you can rise above all of that as you live into being a new creation. Or to quote Peter, ‘live as free people but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil. Live as if you were a slave to God. Show proper respect to everyone. Love the family of believers. Fear God. Honor the emperor’. And then Peter talks to those who have found themselves as slaves or in servitude. And he’s in no way saying, like, this is a good idea, slavery is a good idea, I condone this, everybody should have a slave. None of that’s going on here. Peter’s simply speaking into a reality, how things are for some of these people. And he uses it as a backdrop for the suffering, for the injustice that they are beginning to encounter. And he’s saying, look, if you’re punished for something that you did wrong and you have to endure the punishment, but you actually did the deed, then you can’t credit yourself with something you didn’t deserve. You deserved it. But, and I’m quoting Peter here, ‘but if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God. To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in his steps’. Right? You should be Christ like. You should rise above all of this. Which brings us to this very famous summary. These people are feeling like they’re being treated unjustly and marginalized, and Peter is encouraging them that they are not the only ones, that the son of God was treated the same way. Which brings this important passage that we were talking about into context. So, Peter says, ‘when they hurled their insults at Him’, which is Jesus, ‘He did not retaliate, when He suffered He made no threats. Instead, He entrusted Himself to Him who judges justly’, which is a very important recommendation for the people that Peter is speaking to. And he goes on to say, ‘He himself bore our sins in His body on the cross so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness. By His wounds we have been healed’. And we can see that this is not just a verse about physical healing. What Peter’s talking about is regeneration, being made new, being made whole, healed completely. And, so, we get a hope and an outlook and a context for what we’re going through. And then Peter shifts gears. He’s still talking in the same context, but he switches gears to husbands and wives, and ends up with a bombshell. So, for starters, we have to remember our context. These people are dispersed Jewish people who have, to some degree, assimilated into new cultures. And those cultures are wide and varied. And because of this, the marriages are wide and varied. So, it’s not unusual for a woman to have come to Jesus but her spouse has not. Or a husband has come to the Lord, but their wives have not. So, Peter says, ‘wives, in the same way, submit yourselves to your own husbands, so that if any of them do not believe the word they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives when they see the purity and reverence of your lives’. And can we at least acknowledge that Peter is not talking about domestic abuse. I mean, we can read passages like this and go, like, alright, than no matter what’s going on, you’re getting beat up, you’re getting verbally abused, you’re living in fear of your well-being, and in even your life, and you just need to suck it up. If that’s what Peter was trying to communicate, then that’s what he would have communicated. But we’ve just spent a good amount of time trying to provide the context for what’s going on here. And Peter is simply saying, the posture that you have to live with as you are being marginalized in this world is to acknowledge the injustice of what’s going on and look to a higher judge. You are being remade. This is a whole new thing going on and endurance is a part of that story as was displayed by the son of God, Jesus Christ Himself. And that finds its way into our own homes. It’s a posture of love that Peter is describing. And he’s essentially saying, look, you may not be able to convince your spouse with your words but your life says a lot more than your words do. And your beauty radiates from within you, spilling out into the world. It’s not the other way around, that you have a fancy wardrobe, and walk around, and your all beautiful and fancy. Your beauty radiates from within. And what can be more beautiful than the glory of God radiated out into the world through your life. And then he turns husbands. ‘Husbands, in the same way’, so adopting the same posture of love, ‘in the same way, be considerate as you live with your wives and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life’. And then we get to the bombshell. You do all of this so that nothing will hinder your prayers. So, in other words, if your life is not speaking louder than your words, there’s a problem. If you trying to ornament yourself in a way that draws attention to you but exposes the lack of the glory of God spilling out of your Spirit and into the world, then you’ve got a problem here. If you’re not consider it to each other, if you’re not treating each other with respect, then you’ve got a problem here, and your prayers can be hindered. And that’s kind of big deal to ponder. But that would explain a lot, wouldn’t it? It’s kind of an, ah ha. It’s kind of a bombshell, like, whoa, I didn’t see that in here before. My prayers can be hindered based on the way I treat my covenant of marriage. Some things to think about today 

Prayer:

Father, we invite You into that. And we say that a lot, because Your word continues to speak things into our lives that are disruptive. They always bring us to a fork in the road. And, so, we invite Your Holy Spirit into the ways that we have felt unjustly treated and in the ways that we relate to our spouses. Come Holy Spirit. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the website. It’s home base. It’s where you find out what’s going on around here.

Today is Black Friday. And, so, it is the official launch of the Daily Audio Bible Christmas Box 2017. And we do one of these every year and pack it full of resources that you can pick and choose. Some stuff you’re going to want for yourself and other things you may want to give away. And this year’s box is tailor-made for this season. So, in the box is the Advent CD that I talked about a couple of days ago. Also included is the family Christmas CD full of carols and beautiful arrangements for the holiday season. And I loved making that album. It was the Christmas record I always wanted to make. And it’s perfect for grabbing a cup of hot coffee or cocoa or whatever and turning all the lights off and just leaving the Christmas lights on and taking a few minutes just to reflect. So, some great music for the season. Also included are two copies of the Sneezing Jesus, a book that was written to be read, obviously, but also written to be passed forward into many other lives. So, we’ve included two copies of Sneezing Jesus in the box this year for that reason. Also included is a book by my friend, Ian. It’s called The Road Back to You and it’s been one of the most influential reads of the year for me. You may have heard of the enneagram before, you may have heard that word, it’s like all the rage right now. It’s definitely a big buzz and a lot to do with this particular book even though it’s been around for a very, very long time. So, I’ve got to tell you. I have taken lots and lots of personality profile tests. Right? Strengths Finder’s, and Gift Mixes and, you know, like, Myers-Briggs, all of this stuff and I think it’s interesting and I think it’s helpful to a degree, but this enneagram journey was like a totally different thing. And I could talk a long time about it but, for me, it kind of came at the right time. So, early in the year my mom passed away and I talked about that back in January when it happened. And that’s something…I mean…that…that left me grieving, obviously, but I’ve lived long enough to know that kind of pain, that kind of suffering, it…it’s always the precursor of something new. It’s usually the precursor of something creative in my life. And I spent a lot of time just, you know, moving through grief, but in it all, trying to intentionally aim my heart toward God, to invite Him into it all. And I knew this book is being written a couple years ago. And, so, when it came out I jumped on it because, The Road Back to You, oh, that was just like, that is what I’m looking for, because it’s like, if I can find the path to my own heart, if I can find the path to my true self, I will find the Lord there. Where else would he be? He indwells me. He’s within me. He is at the core of the truest person that I am, my identity. And, so, I read it twice. And then I started talking to Jill about it and she wasn’t over the moon, like, oh my gosh, let’s sit down and read this together or anything like that. She’s taken all these tests too. And, so, I’m like Jill, this is, like, different. This is coming from a different place, the assumptions are different. This isn’t like trying to uncover your personality. This is trying to tell you that all of the things you’ve developed over the years that have become your personality and your presentation to the world are actually the ways that you have created to cope with the world, but behind all of that is the truth. The vulnerable and true you. And all of these things that you have created around yourself to present yourself in a certain way, you did that for lots of reasons, but ultimately you did it to protect that true place. And it was fascinating to me intellectually, but then, so, like, I’m finding my type - there are nine of them in this book – and I’m reading it and I’m like, this is scary accurate. Like, I am exposed. I am exposed here, good and bad. My bell is rung. My mail has been read. And, so, one night with Jill, I kind of forced the issue. We were watching something on TV or something like that. We were sitting on the couch together and I’m like, hey, let’s find you, let’s find you in this. And she’s like, you know, like, alright, you know, like not all that excited, but okay. And for the next couple of hours we began to engage in conversation and then we narrowed this down and then, right there on the couch, I read the chapter aloud for her type. And by the time I was done, my wife was sitting next to me on the couch in tears, because it was describing her inner life in words. It was naming things. And so, like, for her, she was like I thought I was the only one. Like, I thought I was the only one who felt these things. And it validated so much for her, while at the same time exposing the shadow side of it all, as it had done for me. And, so, then I read my chapter and she laughed, because it was just saying on the page what she had known about me all along. But it gave us language to understand each other in profoundly new and helpful ways. So, then I, you know, I sent a copy to everyone who was around me, who works with me. And it’s profoundly helpful just for understanding of where everybody’s coming from. So, to make a long story short, we contacted InterVarsity Press, who published this book, to see if we could get them for the Christmas Box this year, and we figured that all out, and we have them. And they are in the Box this year, because this has influenced me, has helped me a lot, and I do believe that it will help you. And, so, it’s in the Christmas Box this year. Also in the Christmas Box, the Daily Audio Bible Christmas bulb that we have. Each year a different one. And this one has the word for the year ‘margin’ on it. And we’ve been doing this for five years and I have five of these on my tree and this is the one for 2017. A Black Wing pencil is included in the Box. Your choice of windfarm coffee or tea, your choice will be included in the Box. As well as a pack of 20 Daily Audio Bible Christmas cards for 2017. So, it’s an awesome Christmas Box this year and it is available now at dailyaudiobible.com in the shop.

So, a couple things. 1) I would say get them while you can. We always sell out of them, and 2) This is for those of you will be internationally ordering. Obviously, you can order whenever you want, but if you want your Christmas box to arrive for Christmas, then we have calculated that the 29^th, so just a week, this coming Wednesday, the 29^th is the cut off day that we feel like things will arrive for Christmas. We have this arrangement with FedEx and it takes longer because FedEx ships into your country and then it moves into your mail system, but it allows us to ship as inexpensively as is possible. The downside is it takes a little bit longer. So, we’re telling you the 29^th if you’re ordering internationally. And, yes, my Canadian brothers and sisters, and my Mexican brothers and sisters, that includes you. As close as we are together geographically, we still find ourselves in different nations. So, just a little heads up there. Those of you in the United States, the cutoff date for getting there by Christmas we have calculated to be December 18^th, although they may be sold out by then. So, there’s your Daily Audio Bible Christmas Box 2017. They are available now.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There is a link. It’s on the homepage. Thank you for your partnership here as we move into the busy season, the last season of the year. Thank you for your partnership. If you prefer the mail, the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And as always, if you have a prayer request or comment 877-942-4253 is the number to dial.

And that’s it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayers and Praise Reports

Hi DAB family. My names Terry. I’m from the Chicago area. I had an affair for a couple of…a ten month affair…and as a result of this affair…I hurt and striped my family, hurt my wife. I want to make things better. I’ve lost my job. I’ve lost my livelihood. I’ve lost the respect of my children. I’ve lost everything. She was my Bathsheba. And I don’t know how I’m going to go on. I’ve been praying a lot. And especially for trying to find another job but…it’s so hopeless…just please pray for me in my situation. Thank you DAB family for being there. I pray for you. I’m sorry I’ve wandered so far from the Lord. I know I wasn’t listening. I know those traps were out there and I built them. Now I seek forgiveness. I seek to heal this relationship. Thank you all. I know your names. Again, Terry from Chicago. Thank you.

Well, hello my DAB family. This is Mark S. from Sydney Australia. Today is Monday the 20^th. And I’m really ___. It’s very hard as well because…it’s a hard call to make because…well…of the fear of human judgement…the fear of…admitting my sin to you. It is a hard one but I do want to just because, family, I love you, and I want you to pray for me. I’ve fallen into sexual sin again and I know all of you prayed for me back around about March and I feel ashamed that…that I’ve done it again…but I want to move on quickly because I don’t want to go into depression because I know that’s going to take me away further from the Lord and I want to get back straight at it again…but I’m fully aware of the seriousness of my sin and I’m asking God to give me His grace to get up and get back on the narrow path and keep trusting Him and moving forward again. Thank you, family. Bye.

Hi. This is John from Bethlehem Pennsylvania. Good morning Daily Audio Bible family. It’s the 20^th of November and Thanksgiving week. I hope you guys are all doing well. I love you. I love this community. I love everything that you all stand for. I wanted to call in prayer for Linda from Spokane Washington. I listened to the podcast for the 20th and you are asking for prayer over your daughter Maddison and, I believe, your son, James. I just very quickly, wanted to make sure, Linda, that you’re encouraged. My son, John, who is 25 years old now, if I could combine both of the stories that you told about Madison in her rebellion and James with his addiction, this is my son. And things that he had gone through when he was about Madison’s age all the way up until just about 8 months ago. I can tell you Linda that John came back to God, he came back to the Lord, and he’s there now. And I know that Madison will as well and I know that James, through the power of the Holy Spirit and with Jesus as his Savior, will overcome his addiction habits, just like my son John. So, my prayer for you and my prayer for everybody in the community is, that through God and through the Holy Spirit that indwells within us that we can stay encouraged and stay strong in our faith. And that we continue to pray over and ask God for forgiveness and to humble us and everything we do so that so that we can do everything we can to serve those around us, especially our sons and daughters. I love you community. Thank you Brian. Thank you Jill. God bless you.

Daily Audio Bible family, this is Curtis from Northern California. It’s November the 20^th. I’m asking for prayer for my wife. She has fibromyalgia, shingles, and has a number of other ailments. My wife and I are struggling with my marriage. We are still foster caring for drug babies. I ask that you pray for her and pray for me as this week is Thanksgiving. Please pray for me that I may serve my wife as Christ has served the church. Please pray for me. I love you all. I’m praying for you. Love you.

Ezekiel 45:13-46:24, 1 Peter 1:13-2:10, Psalms 119:33-48, Proverbs 28:11

Today is the 23^rd day of November. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. It’s great to be here with you today. Happy Thanksgiving to those of you who live here in the United States. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone in the world. Yes, today is a national holiday in the United States but isn’t every day an opportunity to show gratitude and thanksgiving. So, let’s dive in and take the next step forward through the Scriptures. We’re continuing to read through the book of Ezekiel in the Old Testament. Tomorrow we will complete the book of Ezekiel. And we have begun first Peter in the New Testament, so we will read from that we get there. We’re reading from the New International Version this week. Ezekiel chapter 45 verse 13 through 46 verse 24 today.

Commentary:

Okay. So, what Peter is doing here in his letter is very similar to James. He’s showing a posture to live by, the shape our lives are to take, but it’s not just for the sake of handing down some behavior modification rules. He’s saying life should look a certain way because of what is going on, what God is doing in the world. So, it’s not about these rules, it’s not, like, this is the shape your life should be and because I’m laying down the law. It’s, this is the shape your life should take because this is godly and you are a vital part of what’s going on. So, let’s look at that for a second and, man, it can’t be any more appropriate than this time of year. I mean, here in the United States, this is Thanksgiving Day, so, families have traveled. People are moving about so that families can all be back together. And then this kind of begins the holiday season as we move toward Christmas. And, so, there’s a lot of parties, a lot of interaction, a lot of family, a lot of this kind of stuff that is full of joy but can also be really, really challenging depending on the family dynamic, because you could have been on your own for decades and have your own family your own spouse, and live in a different city, but when you walk into that home that you grew up in, or whatever, and you’re 10 years old again. Right? And everybody all gets together and kind of falls back into that. And then, you know, there’s all these boundaries, and it just, all of the sudden things can get a little weird and tense in those environments. Not always and not for the whole time, but it can get that way. And that underlying tension, kind of, it’s just like a cloud that is part of the mix of the holidays. So, in light of that, let’s just look at what Peter is saying the shape our lives are to take is supposed to be. So, let’s just begin at the beginning of our reading. ‘With minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at His coming. As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance, but just as he who called you is holy, so, you be holy too, because God said, be holy because I am holy’. Now, obviously, Peter’s not talking about any national holidays or anything like that. He’s talking about the shape of life itself, but we’re about to live into this season, this holiday season, and it is the next chapter of our lives. It’s the most immediate thing that’s right in front of us. So, it’s just simply remembering in every situation, whether it’s that you’ve got, like, somebody stole your parking place when you are trying to shop, somebody cut you off in line, somebody was pitching a fit doing this or that at this party, or this person was acting stupid, or family dynamics, or whatever. Just remembering, ‘be holy because I am holy’ can really save us from a lot of conflict that does not have to happen, that can happen, but doesn’t need to. Let’s move onto his next point. ‘Since you call on a Father who judges each person’s work impartially’. Right? So, right there, we have to remember, everyone is an individual here and we’re not the judge. God is, and he’s impartial. So, we can be no different. So. Peter says, since you’ve call on a Father who judges each person’s work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear. And it’s these kind of verses that make us go like, I’m a stranger here, I don’t belong here, my home is somewhere else, I’m a foreigner just waiting. I’m not going against that metaphor. But I do want to point out, that’s not what Peter is saying here. Peter’s specifically writing to people in the Diaspora. Right? People who have been disbursed from their homeland over a long period of time and either sent into exile by force or have fled for their lives, especially during the Assyrian conquest or the Babylonian conquest, both of which we’ve read earlier in the year and talked about at length. So, we at least have to acknowledge who Peter’s writing to. So, when Peter says, ‘live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear’, he’s speaking to specific people about a specific scenario. And to those people he speaks into the lives, ‘you know that it was not with perishable things such as gold and silver that redeemed you’. Right? You were not ransomed by cash or valuables from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors. You were ransomed by the precious blood of Christ. So, Peter is referring to their history and how they got to where they are and of the great hope for redemption, eternal redemption, that comes through Jesus. And, so, his pay off thought is, ‘through Jesus you believe in God, who raised Jesus from the dead and glorified Him. And, so, your faith and hope are in God’. Right? So, your faith and hope are in God and not in your money or your valuables or any other hope for redemption, which gives us another pivotal thing to remember as we move through this season. So, so far we have two points from our reading in first Peter today that we could summarize and carry with us. I will choose holiness because my Father is holy and my faith and hope are in Him no matter what is swirling around me. And then Peter’s third point is a massive one. ‘Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart, for you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God’. So, Peter’s saying, be holy in all that you do. Your faith and hope are in God alone. So, open your heart to each other. Truly love deeply from your heart because you’re not who you were. You have been born again and you are a new person. Okay, so what does that practically look like? How would we describe what Peter is saying? Thankfully, he does that for us. ‘Rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind’. And these are the kinds of things that kind of bubble up to the surface when we get put into those tense situations that the holiday season can bring. Right? You can lavish gifts upon people while at the same time being full of malice and deceit and hypocrisy and envy and slander of every kind. Kind of like the way that James said, you know, you can praise the Lord and curse your brothers and sisters out of the same mouth. And James counsel was, this shouldn’t be happening. And Peter’s saying essentially the same thing. So, as an alternative to malice and deceit and hypocrisy and envy and slander of every kind, Peter suggests a different posture. ‘Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation now that you have tasted that the Lord is good’. Peter is describing an innocence and a trust and a hope, like a newborn for their parents, a much better way to live in the hope that God gives us. And according to Peter, what makes us grow up in our salvation. Definitely something to carry forward with us into the busy season. And then, lastly, Peter gives us a picture of who we really are, why we should shift our posture of heart and be holy as our Father is holy and put all of our faith and hope in Him and rid ourselves of malice and deceit and hypocrisy and envy and slander of every kind. And rather, trust our Father as a newborn would. And crave what He is feeding us so that we might grow up in our salvation. And the picture is this - ‘You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God. Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy’ -  which is huge. Huge! But it’s the ‘why’ of it all for Peter. ‘You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light. That’s why you be holy because your father is holy. That’s why you put all your faith and hope in God alone. That’s why you are impartial and fair. That’s why you open your hearts to each other and love deeply. That’s why you get rid of malice and deceit n your heart. That’s why you don’t live as a hypocrite. That’s why you don’t walk around with envy toward everything and everyone that you don’t have. And that’s why you don’t slander people. Rather, that’s why you live with the pure trust of the newborn baby craving spiritual milk, so that you can grow up. You’ve had a taste and you can see that the Lord is good. And these are the postures. This is the shape of life that a person who is chosen should have. And, of course, this should permeate everything about us every single day. But these are definitely the things that we can carry with us into the busy season of the year because that’s going to encompass every single day of our lives during this season.

Prayer:

Father, with great encouragement we read these words, these pictures of who we really are, these reminders of what it is we’re doing here and we heed the counsel found in this letter from Peter, to first consider whether or not what were about to do or say or think is holy and to shape our lives accordingly. And, of course, we acknowledge that this is not possible in our own strength. So, we invite your Holy Spirit to indwell us, to fill us, and to inform all of our thoughts, words, and deeds, all of our interactions, all of the beautiful moments, and all of the tense ones. Come Holy Spirit and let our lives be radiant with the light of the good news of the coming of the Savior in this season. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the website. It’s home base. It’s where you find out what’s going on around here.

We’re moving into this holiday season. Tomorrow is one of the bigger shopping days of the year and now we always bring out the Daily Audio Bible Christmas box. And, so, that’s available you check that out at the Daily Audio Bible shop, where you can see all of that. The Daily Audio Bible Christmas cards are available as well. So, you can check it out at dailyaudiobible.com.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There is a link on the homepage. I thank you profoundly for your partnership. If you prefer the mail, the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And as always, if you have a prayer request or comment 877-942-4253 is the number to dial.

And that’s it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayers and Praise Reports

Without You Lord I have no win
I struggle daily deep within
It’s hard for me, my mind and heart both stray
To places where they shouldn’t be, places far away
The tempter comes and my thoughts go to places not in You
The tempt is always there dear God no matter what I do
Sometimes I win sometimes I lose
I’ve struggled now for years
Never stopped to recognize the sum of all my fears
Holiness with happiness, that’s what I wish I could enjoy
But I’ve been drawn to the flashy things since I was just a boy
I also walked in faith with power
All demons had to flee
I prayed in tongues and healed the sick
You walked each day with me
I’m looking back with longing now Lord
Please fill me once again
I need your power to overcome these fleshly thoughts of sin
The things I lost were precious Lord 
They might not get restored
But nothing in the material world can compare with Spirit poured 
Bind, cast uncleanness out, I’ll follow as you lead
I want to be approved by You in word and thought and deed
Anoint me God and fill me too
Purify me once again
I’d rather be your slave dear God than a free man lost in sin
Cause only You can deliver
Only You can save
Even though I walk and believe I’ve got one foot in the grave
Freedom isn’t free at all when one is lost in sin
Cause once you start you cannot stop
You’re doomed to sin again
I’m ready Lord with all my heart to let this madness end
I need to Lord it and freely confess that without you I can’t win 
My love for You is greater Lord then my love of fleshly fun
Let it be a done deal Lord
I need this battle won
Make my heart complete dear God
Cast all uncleanness out 
Victories mine I know dear God
Of this I have no doubt

Blindtony1016@gmail.com

Hello Daily Audio Bible family. This is ___ calling from Delaware. I hope that each one of you is blessed. I have a small encouragement for each one of you. Call it what you wish, a talent, a skill set, a gift, the talents are different but the truth is the same. Paul says in First Corinthians 12:7, the Spirit has given each us a special way of serving others. You aren’t the only person with your skill, but you are the only person with your version of your skill. You enter the world uniquely equipped. Psalms 139:13-15 describes it as, mixed together, woven together in the depth of the womb, intricately and curiously evolved. Yes, each of us, not some of us, are the ___ of the elite among us. Each of us has a beauty that longs to be ­­­­___ and released. It is you at your best when you stand at the intersection of your skill and Gods call. You are standing at the corner of Promised Land Avenue and the glory days will ___. I love you family. Make it a great day. ___ from Delaware.

Hello Daily Audio Bible family. This is Monica in Kentucky. I’ve been listening to the community prayers for November 18^th. I’m not done yet, but I wanted to call in and thank everybody who called in about spiritual warfare and spiritual attack over the past week because I really needed it. I lead the largest prayer life ___ center ministry in Kentucky and we just moved into a newly renovated facility and just rebranded this month and the enemy has just been discouraging me personally, but seems to be enjoying just a nagging attack across our ministry. In the last several weeks, 2 of my staff members spouses’ have lost their jobs, our board chairs’ pancreatic cancer remains inoperable after 4 months of chemo, and we had a seriously scary carbon monoxide infiltration this past week due to the boiler being improperly vented. So, praise is that the board chairs’ tumor has stopped growing. And that we did not have any children on site during that carbon monoxide scare. I don’t want to downplay those praises, but I’m just really leery. There’s a lot of punch list items and lose ends to wrap up before we’re complete. But we do have a ribbon cutting and grand opening event this Tuesday before Thanksgiving, the 21^st. The governor is going to be there, more than 100 guests and I would just ask that you pray that it goes well and that we are encouraged and can come out of Thanksgiving holiday just renewed and refreshed. Thank you and I will probably call back and pray for some other people, later, after I’m done with the prayer line. Bye.

Hello from beautiful, well, this is actually the greater Houston area, Houston Texas area. This is Daniel J. Junior. And I’m actually here in Webster, Texas. I’m getting ready to take my mom home to beautiful Cincinnati, Ohio. It is currently November the 19^th 2017 and God has done some amazing things. The last time that I saw my mom, before coming back to here, she was unconscious, and now my mom is very much awake and alive and alert. She still needs a lot of rehab. And, so, your continued prayers along those lines would really be helpful. And then, I got a call from my wife this afternoon. We learned that her sister, her oldest sister, was found dead in her apartment in her home this morning or this day recently. And, so, this prayer is for my wife Jenny and her family, especially my mother-in-law, who is in her 80s, this is so hard, obviously, for our family. God is doing something, the enemy is really doing something, but God is much bigger. Jesus wins. Satan loses. To God be the glory. Looking forward to hearing your prayers and comments. Daniel J. Junior from Cincinnati Ohio. God bless and make it a great day.

Ezekiel 44:1-45:12, 1 Peter 1:1-12, Psalms 119:17-32, Proverbs 28:8-10

Today is the 22^nd day of November. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It’s great to be here with you today. Here in the United States it’s the day before Thanksgiving. So, a lot of cooking going on today for the feast that happens tomorrow. You may be cooking up a nice turkey right now while your listening. I know that’s going to be happening in my house. I won’t be doing the cooking. I’m not the magic there. My wife is. Jill is an amazing cook, but I don’t think we’ve come here for cooking tips. We’ve come here for the Scriptures. And, so let’s dive in. We have just a couple of days left as we move through the book of Ezekiel in the Old Testament and then today we will begin first Peter and we’ll talk about that when we get there. But first, we’re reading from the New International Version this week, Ezekiel chapter 44 verse 1 through 45 verse 12.

Peter: 

Okay. So, yesterday we finished up the book of James, and we were left with plenty to ponder, plenty to examine and to consider, especially as it relates to our words. And now we find ourselves at the threshold of the first letter or epistle of the apostle Peter, and we’ll find, as we can deduce from the Gospels, that he will be very direct as well and that Peter’s passionate and direct encouragement is for believers who are in persecution or are beginning to be marginalized and coming under persecution. And, of course, we’ve come to know the personality and character of Peter through the Gospels and in the book of Acts. This a very passionate follower of Jesus. One of Jesus inner circle along with James and John. And probably Peter’s lowest moment was that of denying Christ three times. Remember that from the passion stories? But as is true with each one of us, God redeems everything. And that denial, although a part of Peter’s history did not become Peter’s legacy. He was the man when the tongues of fire of Pentecost came down upon the believers who preached a message where 3000 came to Christ in one day. And he spent the rest of his life before he was martyred spreading the good news. So, this first letter from Peter was probably written from Rome although we don’t know that for sure, there’s nothing positive about that. It was likely written between A.D. 62 and 64 somewhere around the time that the apostle Paul was first released from prison in Rome. In fact, there is some persuasive evidence that maybe Paul asked Peter to write this letter. And again, that’s conjecture, but make some sense. Paul was leaving on a missionary journey but there was persecution in the region. And what is compelling about this is that John, Mark, and Silas, who were accompanying Paul happen to be present with Peter as he wrote this. And these were assistants to Paul. So, that’s where that idea comes from. The letter is written to the strangers, sojourners scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, Bithynia. These were five provinces of the Roman empire that sit in modern-day Turkey now. And he uses the term ‘strangers in the Diaspora’ because this would be well known in Jewish culture. So, you remember the 10 tribes, when the Assyrians came in and they were lost to history? Well, they were dispersed. They were in the Diaspora. So, you remember when Judah was captured by Babylon, and they were taken away, and many fled in all kinds of different directions? Yea, they were dispersed. So, those in the Diaspora were those who would have been scattered all over the world in different exiles and those were who were estranged and found themselves strangers from their homeland. And, so, this letter is written to bolster and encourage and lift up those who are suffering persecution and those who were, that it’s looking like they’re about to enter a time of persecution, encouraging all believers to stand firm in the grace of God. And we’ll find that Peter’s direct and forthright. And as we embrace this letter we’ll see that that rings true, that that’s actually helpful, and that it matters as much today as it did then. And, so, we begin First Peter chapter 1 verses 1 through 12.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word and the rhythm that it provides for our lives in community here Daily Audio Bible. We thank You for this constant in our lives that is so often a rescue for our circumstance and advice and counsel for the road ahead. And, also, Your pursuit of our hearts, of setting us free by forcing us to expose things inside of ourselves and face things inside of ourselves and name them and surrender them to your Lordship. We are grateful. And as we turn into this season, here in the United States, of Thanksgiving, we all turn toward family and gratitude. But this is also the time when a lot of things get brought up inside of ourselves and we find ourselves fulfilling roles in our family from days gone by, and all kinds of turbulence mixed in with gratitude and thankfulness and joy. And then we come out the other side of this and here we are in the holiday season and it gets busier and busier and busier. And, so, Father, we commit to this rhythm, to staying true to this rhythm, to continue to walk with You and listen to You, heed Your counsel as we move into the busier part of the year, the most joyful time, as the world rejoices at the coming of a Savior, but also a time that can be exhausting and can be depressing, and has its own challenges. And, so, we’re holding on to You. And we’re holding onto Your word in our lives every day. Come Holy Spirit. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the website. It’s home base. It’s where you find out what’s going on around here.

And we just acknowledged the season that we’re moving into as we went before the Lord together. And this is a joyful time of year as we turn toward thinking of others and giving gifts and receiving and all centered around the coming of the Christ child who would grow to be the Savior of the world. And, so, that’s what’s going on around here. Every year for, oh gosh, 10 years or more, I can’t remember when we first did this, I just remember it was a basket the first year we did this. But we compile resources together and make a Christmas box that is full of things, things for you to choose for yourself and for your own journey and things to give away. And we always bring that out the day after Thanksgiving, also known as Black Friday, also known as the day that the shopping begins for the Christmas season. And that’s what we’ll continue to do. This Friday, the Daily Audio Bible Christmas box 2017 will become available. And we always sell out of them because, on our side, our intention is to create a box that is a valuable, valuable for giving away, valuable for keeping for yourself, and bundling resources together so that we can offer them as inexpensively as we possibly can this one time of year. And I think this box is really well-rounded and really tailored to the season that we’re moving into. So, I’ll give you little overview of what’s in the box this year. Some of these things I’ll be talking about maybe a little bit more detailed as we move forward, but I’ll give you a sneak peek. So, for starters, we’re moving toward the season of Advent, and you know, I’ll talk about Advent when we get into the season of Advent. Lots and lots of you already know what Advent is and you maybe observe it or at least are aware of it every time it comes around. And others of you are probably like, I’ve heard of it, I don’t know what it is, it’s not something that is part of the tradition in my church, we don’t do that. No problem. No problem. I mean, observing Advent isn’t in the Bible. But there is an ancient rhythm to the Christian calendar that moves us through seasons and if we’ll pay attention to that calendar it has really rich traditions that focus our hearts on the time of the year that were in so that we can particularly give reverence to what’s going on. Advent’s one of the seasons. And this has been going on among brothers and sisters since fourth and fifth centuries. So, it’s a long-held tradition. And Advent means coming or arrival. So, it’s the season that we put ourselves in the position of the people who were longing for a Savior to come and praying for that and waiting expectantly for that. And then Jesus came. So, we put ourselves in that posture of longing, of waiting expectantly, as we move ourselves through all of the story of the arrival of Jesus and the mystery of it. And we also acknowledge that we are in that same time still. And we can put our hearts in that same place because we are awaiting Jesus second Advent, His arrival. We are waiting for Him to come and the fullness of his kingdom to arrive. And it can be a beautiful, beautiful time of reflection of pondering the mystery and setting our hopes on Christ. And I said all of that to say that first up in the box is a CD. And the CD is called Advent. And it’s full of beautiful songs of longing and contemplation for the Advent season. Not like Christmas carols, these songs are meant to allow us that space in our lives to contemplate the season. And it’s beautiful. It was created by our friends at Mission Chattanooga, really, really good friends of ours and a church that has really built an intentional core of songwriters and worship leaders and it’s just a beautiful, beautiful album for the season. Then, next up in the box is the family Christmas album. And that is a project that I produced and arranged. And that project is full of Christmas carols that we would, that we know, that our traditional around the Christmas season. And I guess I’m biased, since I created it, but I think it’s lush and orchestral and beautiful and family Christmas is what I think it says. It’s is the kind of project that you put on after you know you trimmed the tree and everything’s, you know, ready to go and you have that rare moment of quiet in the evening and maybe you’ve got a fire burning or maybe the lights are off and just the Christmas lights are going and you have this minute to just get a cup of hot cocoa or whatever and exhale - this is the perfect soundtrack for that. So, in the box, some music for the season. And then next up in the box is a book that was written by my friend Ian. And this book has been one of the most influential reads for me, personally, for the year 2017. I read this book earlier in the year and then had long, long discussions with my wife, and then brought it to our kids, and then brought it to everyone around the Daily Audio Bible that works with us, and then gave away a ton of them, and then made some inquiries to see if we could get them for the Christmas box this year. And this book is called, The Road Back to You. And I’m going to need to go into this in more detail at another time. Actually, I’m going to see if I can round up my wife and do coffee with Jill and Brian about it. So, we’ll talk about that as the days go. Then, next up in the box is two books. We’re including two copies of Sneezing Jesus in the box this year because Sneezing Jesus is just meant to be given away. I mean, it’s meant to be read and pondered, but then the response is to pass it forward, to sneeze it forward. And we’ve been doing that since it came out in July and the stories have been incredible to hear. So, if you don’t have Sneezing Jesus yet, then there’s one in the box for you and there’s one in the box for you to give away. And if you already have it then there’s a couple for you to give away. And then, every year we include in the box or your choice of our windfarm lose leaf tea, our boutique tea. This year, in the box for the tea selection is honey bush and ribose, a South African tee. And our whole bean coffee selection is our own Daily Audio Bible blend. And it is fresh roasted at altitude in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado and then shipped to you so that it arrives fresh and you can tell that it’s fresh as soon as you open it up. So, your choice coffee or tea. Every year in the Christmas box we have the annual Daily Audio Bible Christmas bulb. I think this is the fifth year that we’ve done this, I believe. The only place to get Christmas bulb is in the Christmas box and it’s got the Daily Audio Bible logo on it and the word for the year which has been ‘Margin’. And, wow, that has been quite a word for me this year. So, every year when we put our tree, I put up the bulbs from the Daily Audio Bible from these different years on the tree and its, for me, in my heart, it’s my way of bringing you into our family and our home. I see those hanging on the tree and they represent a whole year together. And every time I see them I just think of the community that we that we share together. So, the Daily Audio Bible Christmas bulb is in the box. And then, a pack of 20 of the Daily Audio Bible Christmas cards that are new and unique and specially designed each year. This year the cover is Peace on Earth and inside is a portion of Scripture from the gospel of Luke around the birth of Jesus. And if you send out Christmas cards, this is a great way to invite people along for the journey with you next year. I mean, there’s nothing about these Christmas cards that just screams Daily Audio Bible. Right? It’s not like that kind of a thing. They’re like cards that you would go to any shop and buy to send out for Christmas and the only thing Daily Audio Bible about it is just on the back, you know, where you’d, like, see Hallmark or whatever, it’s just Daily Audio Bible back there. But there’s plenty of blank space inside for you to write your notes of holiday cheer and greetings. And maybe want to invite some people along with you for the journey next year through the Bible. And incidentally, you can get the Christmas cards, like if you need more than 20 or whatever, you get them at dailyaudiobible.com in the shop as well, just as standalone’s. And they’re not like, we’re not trying to raise money off the Christmas cards, their $5. $5 for 20 of them with the matching envelopes. So, you probably can’t get Christmas cards more inexpensively than that. We create them each year because it’s a great opportunity to invite those that you care about deeply, that you would love to take the journey with you through the Bible in year, into the community for next year. And then, finally, we have included a Black Wing pencil. We introduced those earlier in the year when we introduced the brand-new Daily Audio Bible writing notebook, the new journal that that we custom made from the ground up and paired it with these pencils. And I talked at length about that when we brought those out. So, I won’t revisit that right now. Maybe, I’ll tell the story as we get to the season. But we’ve included a black wing pencil of your own. And their normally sold in boxes. In fact, that’s the only way we’re allowed to sell them, but we talked to them and they agreed to allow us to put one in each of the boxes. And, so there’s one for your writing pleasure in the Christmas box. You may think, pencils, isn’t that kind of old school? Exactly. Writing with a pencil that you have sharpened, that is made out of cedarwood and Japanese graphite, that is the best pencil you can get. It is a joy. I have journaled my way through this entire year using these Black Wing pencils. And, so, we’ve included one in the box. So, there’s little bit of an overview. The Christmas boxes will be available on Black Friday. So, this Friday. And we’ll talk more about that as we move along.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There is a link on the homepage. Thank you profoundly for those of you who have been willing to click that link. If you prefer the mail, the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And as always, if you have a prayer request or comment 877-942-4253 is the number to dial.

And that’s it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayers and Praise Reports

Hey family. It’s Jordan from Michigan. Wow! So, I listened to the community prayer line last week and there were, like, eight people that called in and from the couple days before that as well. And I can tell you, with each person that called, man and I started to tear up. Sometimes I started to full-blown weep every time I heard that people would actually take the time to call in and to try to nourish my soul like that. That is just beyond words, a gift from God for sure. And I just can’t thank you enough. And the prayers are working. This week, I feel as though I’ve had my first successful week as a teacher. And I’m getting a lot more support. And for the first time my career I have some hope. And I always have my hope in God but in my career as well. So, thank you, I love you, and have a blessed day.

Hey everyone. This is Sheryl in Arizona. I think today’s the 17^th. It’s 10:04 my time in the evening. I’m calling in, I was sitting here feeling a great deal of anxiety and it was just put on my heart to call in. I just need you guys. I need your prayers. I hate anxiety. I am trying to trust God. If you could just pray whatever the Holy Spirit lays on your heart to pray I would appreciate it. I’m just being hit with it so hard, especially when I lay down to go to sleep at night. So, I just…I…I definitely need clarity, direction, clarity…I just…really… and the peace of God. Psalm 46:10 has been my life Scripture - Be still and know that I and God. And I just…but I need the prayers of this wonderful community. And I want to say thank you to Tony the painter and to Duane from Wisconsin. Thank you both for saying for mentioning my name on the prayer line, for your prayers, and your words of encouragement. And I am also praying for you both and this whole community. I love you all so much. I just need you. I need my family. I love you guys. Sorry, sorry to call up upset, but thank you so much. Like I said, I love you. Okay. Bye-bye.

Hello. I’m Alaska Mom and today is November 18^th. I’ve been listening to the Daily Audio Bible on and off for several years but this year I’ve been pretty much keeping up every day or catching up if I miss a day or two. I also have been really listening to the prayers each day and I have been praying. But I felt God nudging me to call for a bit but I hate the telephone. So, this is my first call. I’ll probably start posting some prayers on the prayer wall though for those of you who check that. I’m asking for prayers for my family. My husband goes to church on most Sunday’s and says he believes but he doesn’t seem acknowledge God anywhere except maybe an occasional grace at dinner. He used to go to a men’s group and bible study but then got sick for a while. I also have three adult sons who have drifted away from God and although I am very proud of them in what they are doing they doing and that they are not into illegal drugs or activities as far as I know, I long to have them in ___ the presence of the Lord. I also have an elderly mother and older sister who don’t believe and I ask prayer for them. And last, I ask prayer for myself and for a young woman who is struggling with life right now. She’s pretty devout Catholic and I sometimes encourage her and help her as she doesn’t seem to have a very good personal relationship with Jesus. She seems to have difficulty with spontaneous prayers, especially those for confession and forgiveness. She seems to feel like she has ___ or even just to pray for anything. And even little things seem to weigh her down and it’s affecting her health. So, anyway, if any of you listeners could please pray for me and my family and friends, I would really appreciate it. Thank you all for making this podcast and God bless.

Hi everyone. It’s Kristi from Kentucky. I’m looking forward to the day that I can call you with joy again. But today, it’s a hard day, and I’m asking for prayers again. My best friend Gracie is in Orlando and she is, at this moment, sitting next to her brother who is actively dying. And, so I’m just asking, if you would, to please pray for Gracie for strength and that the Lord will keep her well because her health is been reflecting so much of the stress that’s been in her life. So, please, if you would please pray for Gracie and her family, that God will surround them with His peace and comfort them and strengthen them and keep them well. She just lost her daddy, lost him 2 months ago. And, so, she’s really having a hard time. So, please, just pray for my sweet best friend. And also, I’m going to ask you to pray, and this seems so insignificant right now, but I need prayer for my knee. I injured it about 3 months ago but because daddy was so sick I really didn’t do what I needed to get done. But yesterday I went and had an MRI done and last night I was doing some stretching exercises that a physical therapist showed me that help to strengthen my hamstrings and my tendons and when I did my knee popped really loud and I almost fell. And, so, now I don’t know what I’ve done to it more than what was already done to it. So, anyway, I just need prayer for this knee and that I don’t have to have surgery. Alright everybody. I love you all so very much and I thank you for praying. You are so amazingly faithful friends and I love so much. I pray that each of you have a most blessed and lovely day.

Ezekiel 42:1-43:27, James 5:1-20, Psalms 119:1-116, Proverbs 28:6-7

Today is 21st of November. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. And of course, like every day, it is wonderful to be here with you as we dive in and take another step forward through this week, through this month, through this year, through the Bible. So, we’ll pick up where we left off yesterday, which leads us back into the book of Ezekiel, but then when we get to the New Testament, we will be finishing up the book of James. We’re reading from the New International version this week. Ezekiel chapter 42 verse 1 through 43 verse 27 today.

Commentary: 

 Okay. So, we just completed the book of James and if there is one thing about the directness of James that happens, it is that it creates contrasts that then invite personal examination. And we’ve been doing some examination as we’ve gone through the book of James. So, in order to look at the last things that James has to say in this letter, we have to kind of review, really quickly, the last paragraph of yesterday’s reading. Otherwise, it looks like James just launches into an unconnected tirade against rich people, but there’s a more complete thought here. And, so, as we were ending yesterday’s reading we were talking about plans, like, the plans that we make in our own strength. Or to quote James, ‘today or tomorrow we will go to this city or that city and spend a year there and carry on business to make money’. And James is like, you can’t know that, you can’t plan that in your own strength, you don’t even know what’s going to happen tomorrow. Instead, you have to humble yourself, first, before the Lord before you’re off out there making all of your schemes and plans. First, your posture is to be, ‘if it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that’, which is kind of interesting and we didn’t talk about yesterday, but it’s kind of interesting, because, I guess the majority of my life I’ve heard teachings against ever saying ‘if it be the Lord’s will’ because that could introduce doubt into what you’re saying and you shouldn’t say ‘if it is the Lord’s will’ if you already know that it is the Lord’s will. And, as true as that might be, James is saying, no you actually do say ‘if it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that’. ‘We will live and do this or that’, that’s pretty encompassing. And his point is, this is your first reaction in all things, to acknowledge God and our humility, our humbleness, before Him as we seek to follow His will and His ways in our lives rather than coming up with our own schemes and in our own strength trying to make things happen. And it’s here that we turn the corner. And in the same way, James was talking about words and owning what we say and actually sitting with it and being grieved by and mourning and wailing with the repercussions of the harm that we can do with our mouths. He does the same thing as we turn the corner about our own plans and acknowledging the Lord. ‘Now listen’, he says, ‘you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming on you’ and then he goes on to explain the temporary nature of wealth and its inability to be fully preserved. And from a scholarship perspective, it’s not quite clear which rich people James is talking about. And there’s a couple ways look at it that both make sense and, actually, both have value and meaning. So, the first would be that he’s talking about best laid plans and acknowledging God and then he turns his attention to the rich people of the world who are probably hiring and paying the poorer people who are in this church or in this community and the ways in which they are oppressing them, like, by holding back payment, by not actually paying them what they’ve earned, and thereby making themselves richer by preying on poorer people. And what are these poor people to do? I mean, they can rise up and claim injustice and maybe even be successful in getting their pay, but then they’ll be blackballed from working anywhere. So, it’s kind like this oppressive situation. The other way of looking at is that James is talking to people who have wealth that are in this faith community and are doing that, are making themselves more wealthy by exploiting people who are in the working class. For James, if you’re doing that, then it’s going to eventually completely fall apart and you are going to lose what you think you have and then you’ll have judgment to look forward to in the process. And, so, he launches into that warning and that warning is encouraging to people who have been exploited, which leads him to his larger point, ‘be patient then, brothers and sisters, until the Lord’s coming’. So, in other words, if this is happening to you and you don’t how ends are going to meet and you’re being exploited and in this way, anger, and bitterness, and rage are inside you because of this injustice, just know, God handles the scales. He is the judge and He sees and has always seen this kind of behavior for what it is. But in all of that, you have to adopt a patient posture. He uses the example of agriculture, ‘see how the farmer waits for the land to yield its crop, patiently waiting for the autumn and spring rains. You too, be patient and stand firm because the Lord’s coming is near’. So, don’t find yourself turning toward grumbling and this is stirring up more misery. The Lord sees all of this’. Then James uses Job as an example of a person who was patient and persevered. And then James abruptly changes topics and turns to the taking of oaths, and that change reads abruptly, but we have to remember, James has spent a good majority of this letter talking about words and the use of them. So, it’s not surprising that we revisit that idea at the end of the letter. And, so, what’s the big deal about oaths here? For James, this is about simply living true and patient and enduring whatever has to be endured with a good true heart and controlling our mouths so they don’t cause further and unending destruction in people’s lives. And, so, this deal with oaths is more about simply being true. There have been a diminishment of just simple truth speaking. And this comes up in other places in the Bible. And it shows up in our culture. So, it’s unlikely that you’ve never heard somebody say, ‘I swear to God this is the truth.’ Right? Or, ‘I swear to Jesus and all the angels’ or ‘I swear on my own life’ or ‘I swear on the life of my children that this is the truth’. This has been going on a long time. It was going on back then. And, so, the issue is, had you simply said yes this is true, would have been true or do you have to take these oaths, do have swear to something or on something or about something to make it be true? And if you have to do that, was the assumption of the person that you’re talking to that you weren’t saying the truth because you haven’t said the truth before? And, so, now you have to pile on all of these oath’s in order for something to be true? So, for James this is unnecessary. Just be true. Your yes means yes. And if you live that way for a long enough period of time people know that when you say something it’s the truth. If you say no it’s no and if you say yes it’s yes. You don’t have to say I swear to Jesus and Mary and all the angels and on my children’s life and in the memory of my mother that this is true. It doesn’t need all of that unless underneath all of that you are prone to being untrue. And so, you have to say all of these vows and oaths to make someone believe you. Just be true. And then James ends his letter with a set of postures or behaviors that should be espoused and their outcomes, what they will bring about. So James says, is anyone among you in trouble? Then their response is to pray, let them pray. Is anyone happy? Then let them sing songs of praise. Is anyone among you sick? Then let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well. The Lord will raise them up. And if they have sinned, they will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. And that, my friends, is something that we have done well here at the Daily Audio Bible, confessing our sins to one another and praying for each other. That is biblical, as we all know, but what we may have missed is the why -  so that you may be healed. Therefore, confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is a powerful and effective thing. So, when we come together and we hear each other’s voices and we pray over each other and for each other, that brings healing. And it’s not just like physical healing, that brings wholeness. And then James gives his final thoughts. And this letter doesn’t have a valediction or like a closing, a goodbye, it just ends. And his closing challenge is to not let anyone fade away. If people fall away, go after them. Don’t just let them go. Go after them. And, so, he says, ‘my brothers and sisters, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring that person back, remember this, whoever turns a sinner from the error of their way will save them from death and cover over a multitude of sins’. So, it only took us a few days but we covered a lot of territory in the book of James and have a lot to continue to contemplate and invite the Holy Spirit into. We talked about being quick to listen and slow to speak and how to control our anger and that our rage goes nowhere. We talked about the fact that we can’t just hear the word and expect that it’s going to work. We have to do. We have to live into what we hear and make our lives. We learned that our religious life is absolutely worthless if we cannot control our tongues. We learned that favoritism in the body of Christ is a ridiculous thing because everyone is made in the image of God. We learned that if we harbor and hold bitterness and envy and selfish ambition in our hearts then, not only is this an unspiritual thing to do, its allowing the demonic, and that’s a literal translation. And we learned that to avoid quarrels and fights we first submit ourselves to God. We acknowledge God first in all things, submitting ourselves to Him in all things. And if we would submit ourselves to God and resist the devil, He would flee. And we learned that in our own strength, we can make all the plans we want, but we have no idea what we’re talking about, we have no idea what tomorrow’s going to bring, and our posture should be, first, to acknowledge God and if it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that. So, plenty of stuff that hits right at the heart of where we live in the book of James.

Prayer:

Father, we invite Your Holy Spirit to keep it rolling inside of us, to keep these issues that plague us coming up. And even sending us back into the book of James, ourselves, as we continue to understand our posture of heart, the one that is of Your kingdom, and the one that is how we were made to live. Come Holy Spirit, we ask forgiveness for the ways that we have messed this all up so many times. And we invite Your Holy Spirit to lead us to do better. Lead us into all truth. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the website. It’s home base. It’s where you find out what’s going on around here. So, check it out.

A couple of days from now is Thanksgiving Day. And then, so, this Friday is Black Friday and we’ll be talking about the Daily Audio Bible Christmas box that we have every year. And I am excited about this one and looking forward to telling you all that’s in it. I guess I’ll do that tomorrow. So, that’s coming up.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There is a link. It’s on the homepage. I thank you for everyone who has ever clicked that link. Thank you for your partnership. If you prefer, the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Springhill Tennessee 37174.

And as always, if you have a prayer request or comment 877-942-4253 is the number to dial.

And that’s it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayers and Praise Reports

Hi. This is Paul from Houston. I’m calling to pray for Kayla from Nashville. Kayla you were pouring your heart out about some depression and thoughts that you were struggling with and thoughts of not wanting to go on and I just want to encourage you that I think Satan is trying to come and really to deceive us and to not understand who we are and just ask that God would just reveal himself to you as you cry out to Him, Lord, that He would find you and you would hear from Him and that you wouldn’t be stuck in those negative thoughts and I cast those strongholds down that have been in your mind and those things that have taken the place and have put themselves up. And I thank You Lord that Your Spirit, your peace would just dwell in Kayla and that she would be strong in You and I just ask, Lord, that You would bless her and be with her and show her her value and how much of a purpose You have for her. Lord, I ask that You would give her a calling and that You would draw her. And I thank You, Lord, as You draw her, Lord, she would find the redemption in You and I thank You Lord that Satan won’t get the upper hand because she’s a daughter of the King. And I just thank You God that You be with her and You just bless her and bring her that hope in the future that she’s just crying out to You for and I just thank You Lord that You meet her. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

What’s up everybody? It is Miguel from Santa Rosa and I just wanted to call in real quick and give you guys an update. And after little bit of prayer. I know some of you have been praying for Santa Rosa, you’ve been praying for me, you’ve been praying for my church, you’ve been praying for pastor and, guys, God is doing a great work here. There’s not enough time in a 2 minute call to explain it all, but here’s the short version. God is unifying the churches in Santa Rosa for a common purpose -  to get out there and serve the people of the city, to bring people to Jesus. That’s an answer to prayer straight out of John 17. God has provided for our pastor, who lost his home in the fire. He has a home. Praise God. God is speaking to our church, City Alliance church, and showing us that He is going to be doing a work in this church. Guys, God is working. So, as I’m asking for you to pray, the prayer is not that God will you do something. God is doing something. God is working. That is happening. Whether we pray for it or not it is happening. The prayer is this, that we would be fixed on Jesus, as all of this happens, that we would be focused, that we would not take our eyes off of Him as things get turbulent as the work ramps up as God does his work in the city, in our church, in our lives. So, I just ask you guys to continue to pray for that and I am praying for all of you guys too. And I appreciate all the love and encouragement that I have heard on the line lately. I really do feel a part of this community and it’s amazing over…over simple voicemails. So, thank you guys so much. May God bless and strengthen every single one of you listening to this. Alright. Thanks guys.

Hi. This is Dave from Maryland and I’m calling for two of my brothers who are teaming on Kairos Prison Ministry weekends right now. One would be Billy from Montgomery, Alabama who had called in early last month and looking for prayers on whether to serve and for the support of his family and the other is friend, a coworker, who is also serving on his first Kairos Prison Ministry here in Jessup Maryland, on his very first Kairos weekend at this facility. I just pray that they both feel God’s presence through the entire weekend and they know that they don’t have to worry about anything that’s going on inside or outside, that God’s there, He’s with them, He’s on the outside with their families and with everything there. And I just pray for the other men on the team. And I’ve just been inside. Each team has about 42 men – outside guys and inside guys together - and I just pray that everyone involved is open to the work of the Holy Spirit and great things will come out of these weekends. Thank You. Amen.

Beautiful family. This is Pastor Gene. I wanted to bless Lisa the Encourager and thank you so much for all your calls as I hear you pray, I pray with you for others. My heart rejoices and I’m so glad that you have taken up the mantel of being in encourager, as well as so many others here in this community. Thank you so much. And family, before I completely closed chapter with the whole thing with my mom, I wanted to use it to give God glory and to build someone up. And, so, I thought about it, and prayed about it. I’m calling with an exhortation for anybody that is estranged from a loved one, whether that is a daughter, a son, a husband. If you have wronged your loved one, remember that repentance entails not only to say I’m sorry, but to change direction. And if you know you don’t have the power to change direction on your own then repentance also involves using every tool at your disposal to change. In my case, when I started hurting my husband, as a result of the way I have been brought up, I had to admit that I needed therapy. I had to admit that I needed medication. I had to let admit that I needed more than just prayer and reading the word. I had to change and I didn’t have the power to completely change because my personality traits have been affixed by my upbringing. So, I encourage anyone that is listening to this, if you’re estranged, not only say I’m sorry, but don’t whatever it takes to change. Ask God for guidance, create accountability, and use every tool at your disposal to change because, only when we change, we demonstrate to those that we have wronged that we really mean it. I love you family. This is Pastor Gene.